US companies tend to have stricter policies about business travel than their international counterparts, and — probably as a consequence — US business travellers are more likely to understand and comply with the rules, according to a new report from American Express Global Business Travel.

The 2018 Global Business Travel Report, based on surveys conducted by research firm Gfk, found that 78 per cent of US business travellers said they were extremely familiar with their corporate travel policies, significantly higher than the rate among travellers from Australia, France, Germany, the UK, Singapore, and India. American business travellers also were the most likely (67 per cent) to describe their corporate travel policies as “strict.”

Just 40 per cent of U.S. business travellers admitted to violating those policies, or “going rogue,” compared to 79 per cent of travellers from Singapore, 67 per cent from Germany, 66 per cent from India, 64 per cent from France, 61 per cent from the U.K., and 52 per cent from Australia.

Reasons for diverging from official policy include the desire for a hotel closer to meeting locations or in a safer locale. However, not all such behaviour was self-serving: between 85 and 92 per cent of business travellers said they went outside policy at times in order to save their company money.

US business travellers were also the most likely to say that they didn’t need to receive incentives like cash rewards or vacation time to motivate them to follow corporate travel policies.

amexglobalbusinesstravel.com